Working through distractions, and a "journey" in an unexpected place...

Today's distraction took us across town to Natalie's place, where the guy we had working on an air conditioning problem was running into a problem. In all, taking account of a couple of stops made for provisions on the way home, the trip took us almost 4 hours.

Still, between yesterday and today, I've managed to translate about 5,000 target words, so there's little to complain about. I will admit, however, to being a little... tired.

* * *"Journeys" (aka "memory palaces") are probably where you find them.

When today I ran through the first stanza of Robert W. Service's The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill, it occurred to me that there was a series of almost automagically memorable locations embedded within. Check it out:

I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,
Whenever, wherever, or whatsoever the manner of death he die—
Whether he die in the light o' day¹ or under the peak-faced moon²;
In cabin³ or dance-hall⁴, camp⁵ or dive⁶, mucklucks⁷ or patent shoon⁸;
On velvet tundra⁹ or virgin peak¹⁰, by glacier¹¹, drift¹² or draw¹³;
In muskeg hollow¹⁴ or canyon gloom¹⁵, by avalanche¹⁶, fang¹⁷, or claw¹⁸;
By battle¹⁹, murder²⁰, or sudden wealth²¹, by pestilence²², hooch²³, or lead²⁴—
I swore on the Book I would follow and look 'til I found my tombless dead.

If I've counted them right, that's 24 locations. (If I add poor Bill hisself and "the Book," that'll be 26.) Neat!

Cheers...